Working through social media

Organising a network

Students from University of Prishtina, Trina, Nol, Bardha and Rrita are sitting at the UN common premises in Prishtinë/Priština, discussing public events with KADK codesigner, Rasmus in Copenhagen.

When planning the activities for prototyping public events we collaborated on Facebook in three different working groups; Event, Communication and Mapping. A snapshot from the Event group shows a recap from a Skype meeting, that Rrita posted.

A snapshot from the Communication group shows an update from KADK codesigner Maria.

A sneak peek into one of our conversations through the Viber app between Rasmus and Trina, discussing a photo from Prishtinë/Priština.

A small peak into the member list of our main working Facebook group, where all the project's UN staff members and students from University of Prishtina are gathered and communicate together.

Being geographically dispersed, we worked with various social media platforms for communicating, organizing and sharing.

We organized ourselves through groups on Facebook. The main group, ‘Codesign in Kosovo’, was created for everyone involved in the project, and we also created smaller task specific work groups, e.g. for the ones who were responsible for the communication strategy of the project. The Facebook groups were used for various tasks: planning and inviting to meetings, workshops or events (see “Making a dialogue cinema”), sharing summaries, exchanging photos from our everyday and sharing common project photo albums that we put together on Flickr.
We also used the chat functionality of Facebook, together with instant messaging services like Viber and WhatsApp, to do long distance interviews between Denmark and Kosovo. This allowed the Danish codesigners to ask follow up questions to the snapshots taken by the students from the University of Prishtina in the beginning of the project.

“It’s important to have everyone share bits of their everyday life, so we can see different perspectives of youth in Kosovo.”

– Edvin, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

The people involved in this trans-disciplinary project had different ways of being involved and different stakes: Some were involved professionally, some through interest and others through studies. This mix called for a dynamic and volatile way of organizing ourselves that maintained a degree of transparency for everyone involved, somewhat independent of physical presence and across geographical distances, in order to support a sustained participation. Social media platforms are widely used by young people in Kosovo, so the various platforms were well known and relevant to establish as co-working spaces, both in relation to participants and the topic of youth engagement.

Exchanging snapshots

Using social media to share everyday life photos

The collage of our shared snapshots at the UN common premises.

One of the photos that was exchanged between Kosovo and Denmark. Graphic design student, Edvin Susuri, from University of Prishtina writes: "Goodmorning. Painting Class, Faculty of Arts. We spent a lot of time here in our first year even though we study Graphic Design we need to go through these Artsy Classes."

(One of the photos that was exchanged between Kosovo and Denmark.) KADK codesign student, Toke writes: I live in a collective. We are 19 students living together with a shared budget. We eat dinner together everyday.

(One of the photos that was exchanged between Kosovo and Denmark.) Psychology student from University of Prishtina, Bardha, writes: For the past few weeks I have been doing field work and I have visited villages of Kosova. This is one of them - Kovrage, Istog :)

(One of the photos that was exchanged between Kosovo and Denmark.) Student from University of Prishtina, Nol, writes: We get ready for a meeting with the deputy mayor of Prishtina.

We utilized digital media to get an insight in each other’s everyday. The result was a collage of concrete personal images and statements on young people’s aspirations and concerns.

Modern technology allows young people to constantly document and share their everyday through digital platforms. The codesigners from KADK acted on this by inviting the University of Prishtina students to share images from their everyday life. In response, the codesigners from KADK would send similar pictures to the students from their everyday life in Copenhagen.
The challenge was prompted with opening questions such as; “Where are you together with friends?”, “What do you do together?” and “How do you use your local neighborhood?”. Our photos were sent through email and social media and shared within our fellow Facebook group.

“I think that seeing the snapshots we could see that engagement is not really missing.”

– Trina, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

We had to let the project grow from “what was already there” by asking concrete questions. The resulting collage functioned as the first concrete material in the project, full of stories, aspirations and concerns, and it was later used in both the “City walks” and the “Everyday stories as a game of domino” workshop. Sharing everyday glimpses within a network of young people using digital platforms is a good way of getting to know each other also to establish a working process in which everyone can contribute. The activity also functions as a way of carrying out ethnographic research together, creating a reflective perspective on everyday life.

City walks

Exploring public spaces related to youth engagement

Our journeys to Gjilan/Gnjilane and Podujevë/Podujevo offered many interesting conversations between the group's members, and also revealed an interesting scenery of the Kosovo suburban areas.

At the city walks we took turns in sharing the camera. Here, Florent is capturing the meetings with local officials in Podujevë/Podujevo.

The local students of Gjilan/Gnjilane, Manushaqe and Valentina, are showing students from University of Pristina, Orgesë, Trina, Nora and KADK codesigner, Rasmus, their city.

In Podujevë/Podujevo we met with both the vice-mayor and the mayor himself, who have us an official city plate. The meetings gave us insights in the Kosovo municipality system.

Florent and Toke are documenting the city walk together. Florent is explaining Toke what the symbol in the Albanian flag represents.

This photo was taken by one of the city walks. Psychology students, Orgesë and Nora explained KADK codesigner, Toke, that the library in Prishtinë/Priština is seldom used by young people, and the facilities don't invite students to study or do group work together.

Local student, Nol, and his friends, often meet a the film director's school, where a secret terrace provides an amazing scenery of Prishtinë/Priština.

At the city walks in Prishtinë/Priština, local student, Nol, showed us a cafe, where he just joined a meeting on public spaces in Prishtinë/Priština.

One of the spots we were invited to visit in Podujevë/Podujevo was the local youth center. To use the center, you have to be a youth member and register yourself.

We went on explorative walks throughout Prishtinë/Priština, Podujevë/Podujevo and Gjilan/Gnjilane, and together we captured concerns and aspirations about public space in Kosovo.

The codesigners from KADK invited the students from University of Prishtina and young people from both Podujevë/Podujevo and Gjilan/Gnjilane for a series of three-hour walks in their cities to talk about public places. Throughout the walks we shared the process of documenting the places and conversations with each other by taking turns holding the camera.
In some cases, the walks led to places of recreation, some being hidden or secret from the rest of the public. In other cases, the highlighted places represented a missing link or a concern, e.g. an empty library, high-fenced public buildings etc.
We later used the material from the Prishtinë/Priština city walks as the basis for
the “Everyday stories as a game of Domino” workshop.

“When we walked through the city we were inspired by what we saw, and got a new perspective on the real problems.”

– Florent, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

Going for a walk together through public spaces, or other places of interest for that matter, can be seen as a method to let a conversation emerge from issues in the surrounding environment. Suddenly, public places are not only a common ground for people to meet and engage in different activities together, but also a starting point for discussions relating to concrete societal concerns or aspirations. Sharing the camera during city walks let us record multiple angles on a subject and lessens the ”tunnel vision” that a single viewpoint can create, and the filmed material can subsequently be the foundation for new discussions.

The codesigners from KADK were mindful of the common work practice to ensure that all the different partners could be involved successfully.

Throughout the project, the codesigners from KADK focused heavily on creating an open and transparent environment for all partners. This included communicating regularly through a central Facebook group and having the UN common premises as the center of the project and as a place where students from University of Prishtina were also invited in, even when the codesigners from KADK were not present.
Events and materials of the project were always visible during our different meetings: Pictures were printed out and put on display at tables so that everyone was able to get an insight into the subject material. We could refer to specific pictures in discussions and rearrange them to create new meaning.

“Can the UN common premises be used for more youth engagement? Is the UN common building user friendly for this kind of work?”

– Shpend, UNKT

Why is this valuable?

This kind of practice might seem trivial, but with a multitude of partners involved in a multitude of activities in a month-long project, the overview can easily get lost if the communication is confined to text and speech.
Making the process visible supports the inclusion of partners and gives everyone the possibility to form their own understandings of what has happened, which can provide new insights and interpretations of the problem area.

A tangible and visual game, inspired by dominobricks, was presented for discussing Kosovo and Danisheveryday concerns and aspirations.

“Pick two domino cards that tell something important. Present your picks to the group, and make sense of the issues by combining all your cards on a poster.” With these simple rules we worked together in groups combined of five people from KADK, University of Prishtina and the UN. A domino card consisted of two halves: a photo and a snippet of text or quote related to the photo. The photo and text on the domino cards were the very material we had produced ourselves from “Exchanging snapshots” and the “City walks” around Kosovo, and the material could be combined in new ways when the cards were placed like domino bricks. Through the game, we transformed the unsorted pile of stories and photos into four posters, one for each group, that pointed towards issues of vacant public space, libraries as youth spaces and much more that could be explored in the following parts of the project. Each group presented their poster and issues for the rest of the participants.

“By combining the domino cards, different groups came up with the same ideas related to public spaces.”

– Bardha, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

The simple, flexible format of the cards enabled the workshop participants, across disciplines and occupations, to combine and create new, shared understandings of everyday issues concerning youth in Kosovo from concrete stories, discussing what could be through working with what is already there.

Youth engagement on film

Turning stories of youth engagement into small films

Rasmus from KADK is showing what he just filmed to Edvin’s classmates at the Faculty of Arts, University of Pristina.

One of the engagements, that we filmed for as a micro-documentary was the Prishtina Hackerspace, where Gent and his friends invite young people to share and work together on projects.

This spring Genz protested for better exam conditions with his co-students at the Faculty of Medicine. Thanks to their collaborative effort, their protest enabled them to sustain the old system.

Edvin from the University of Prishtina, meets with four friends every Friday to work on a new identity for the University. If their proposal is chosen they receive a new photography class with equipment for the Faculty of Art' s students.

Valentina is part of the Gjilan Rotaract Club for young people. Together with her friends, she blogs about local activities in Gjilan/Gnjilane.

Manushaqe is a part of the Gjilan Rotaract Club for young people. Together with other club members, she collects and distributes toys for the municipality's children.

We made five 2 minute long documentaries that each tell about real life Kosovo youth engagements.

We realized that it is difficult to talk about youth engagement without concrete examples of what it can be. We went looking for already existing stories or activities and asked the question “Could this be youth engagement?”. Equipped with camcorders we visited the young people and sites of the specific activities that we had come upon through our prior activities in Gjilan/Gnjilane and Prishtinë/Priština.
Together, in short 2 hour sessions, we recorded material about the specific story or activity, e.g. a protest at the university or local bloggers. Afterwards, we edited the material into short, concrete examples of youth engagement. The documentaries were shown at the dialogue cinema in Gjilan/Gnjilane (see “Making a dialogue cinema”).

“With the films, we suddenly had rich and concrete stories of youth engagement to talk about. Before we did not really know what it could be.”

– Rasmus, KADK

Why is this valuable?

We turned something that can otherwise be very volatile and abstract into a series of sustained snapshots of something that we consider to be youth engagement. These films worked as rich, communicative tools that allowed our sense making to ‘travel’ and be shared, enabling others to engage in the issue.

Making a dialogue cinema

Gjilan/Gnjilane youth sharing their stories of engagement

Among others, local high school and university students joined the event, Reviving the cinema for one night. The atmosphere was cosy and cheerful (despite the slight low temperature in the gym hall).

All the lights in the gym hall was turned off, leaving the cinema screen as the single point of attention.

Only few materials were bought to build the cinema: Existing props from the gym hall in Gjilan/Gnjilane was used, e.g. the football goal was transformed into the cinema screen.

Each team member had a responsibility at the cinema. Here local student from Gjilan/Gnjilane, Maragonna is welcoming people with refreshments.

The cards with stories on various youth engagements created a colorful collage of different perspectives to the debate, what is youth engagement in Kosovo. 5 films on youth engagement inspired 24 new stories.

After writing down a personal story of engagement our hostess, Bardha, invited the audience to hang up their stories next to the cinema screen.

Due to our online promotion of the event, the Kosovar tv broadcaster, Kohavision (KTV), payed the event a visit and interviewed three of our team members on the event, among others the evening's hostess, Bardha.

Maragonna and Elduana are setting up the colored lights to create a cosy atmosphere at the cinema.

With a little ingenuity from the local students of Gjilan, the yellow mattresses from the gym hall became cinema seating area with blankets and pillows.

Bardha, the event hostess, additionally encouraged people to share their stories, by presenting it in front of the audience. One of the stories presented, concerned local youth engaging in a conference with various officials.

At Reviving the cinema for one night, we screened five small films on various youth engagements in Kosovo. The films were cheered by the audience and especially the local films from Gjilan received positive recognition.

We organized a temporary work studio at the gym hall to prepare the last details for the cinema night. (Within the team we created questions for the audience to reflect on each film.)

The audience was invited to debate on the films' theme; What is youth engagement in Kosovo? Using small cards, the young people would discuss and write down their own stories of engagement.

We engaged more than 100 young people from Gjilan/Gnjilane to join us for a night of films and shared stories of youth engagement.

The codesigners from KADK, University of Prishtina students and the Gjilan/Gnjilane students transformed the local sports hall in Gjilan/Gnjilane into a temporary cinema and showed five films about youth engagement (see “Youth engagements on film”), followed by a documentary about Kosovo rural life from the 70’s.
With the documentaries as an inspiration, the audience, who counted more than 100 young people, shared their own stories of engagement on pieces of paper and hung them for display around the cinema screen. The process of engaging the audience with dialogue cards was facilitated by Bardha from University of Prishtina. The result was 24 different stories of youth engagement in Gjilan/Gnjilane.

“I hope people can see that they can do something simple. I think we tend to over-complicate youth engagement”

– Bardha, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

The term ‘youth engagement’ can be both abstract and complex and therefore difficult to talk about. We used the cinema as a format that was both well known and had connotations of something social and fun. We made the subject of ‘youth engagement’ approachable through telling the concrete stories of local young people and anchor the event in a local setting transformed to serve a new purpose. This served as a foundation for the audience to reflect on their own everyday activities and share their own stories of engagement. The collection of stories is also a great tool for the UN in regards to broadening their horizon of what youth engagement can be.

Inviting with engaged,local partners

Being personal and present in the invitation

Local students from Gjilan/Gnjilane and KADK codesigner, Maria, are ready to walk the streets of Gjilan to promote the event, Reviving the cinema for one night.

Local student, Manushaqe, is handing out flyers to local young people and hanging up poster on the streets of Gjilan/Gnjilane.

Valentina and Elduana are hanging up posters on the streets. With posters and flyers, the cinema event was promoted at local high schools, bars, sports halls etc. in Gjilan/Gnjilane.

Handing out flyers to local, young people in Gjilan/Gnjilane enabled us to explain and promote the cinema event directly to people. The promotion of the event was supplemented with a Facebook site and event, that young people could join.

All the flyers and posters were written in Albanian to ensure that most people could understand the framework of the event.

Local students from Gjilan/Gnjilane and KADK codesigner, Maria, are ready to walk the streets of Gjilan/Gnjilane to promote the event, Reviving the cinema for one night.

The orange poster, promoting the cinema event in Gjilan/Gnjilane, were very visible in the city scenery.

With the help of the students from Gjilan/Gnjilane, we invited young people in Gjilan/Gnjilane to participate in the dialogue cinema.

It was crucial for us to have a broad audience of young people attending the dialogue cinema with their inputs on youth engagement.
Joined by the Gjilan/Gnjilane students, some of which were featured in the micro-documentaries, we promoted the event by setting up flyers and posters at high schools, universities and hangout spots in the city. This also enabled us to talk directly to people about the event. An online Facebook page was also created to spread news of the event through the network of the already involved people.

“It’s important to have dedicated people, ready to help.”

– Alban, University of Prishtina

Why is this valuable?

Having the Gjilan/Gnjilane students help the codesigners from KADK spread the word on the streets of Gjilan/Gnjilane was a natural progression of their involvement in the project. The codesigners from KADK would never have been able to reach a large audience without local involvement.

Events have to resonate

Something has to be at stake

A sneak peak of a collage for the items we needed to create the Buildnic event.

When discussing the Buildnic event, quick sketches such as this, was helpful to narrow down what we wanted to do and not do at the event. (The event shouldn't just be a building site, it should also involve social activities and debates between young people on youth engagements.)

KADK codesigner, Toke, is taking notes on the ideas at the Buildnic meeting with local students and artists of Prishtinë/Priština.

A local, young artist of Prishtinë/Priština is sharing his ideas of how he imagines the Buildnic event to proceed.

KADK codesigner, Maria, was sketching the ideas from the meeting, which enabled mutual understandings when the group was sharing their thoughts.

A planned event centered on building a temporary hangout space had to be cancelled when it was clear that it did not resonate.

One outcome of the “Everyday stories as a game of domino” workshop was a proposal to create an event in public space centered around building a temporary hang out space: “Buildnic” was the working title. Some of the students from University of Prishtina had invited a circle of friends to take part in a planning meeting a few days prior to the event, together with the codesigners from KADK. Plenty of ideas were proposed, but in the end it was clear that none of the participants at the meeting had a personal stake in the event. Compared to the dialogue cinema, where the Gjilan/Gnjilane students and their projects were featured in films that were shown at an event they themselves were helping create, the Buildnic event was lacking a purpose and a reason for engaging. Therefore, the codesigners from KADK decided to cancel the event.

"I think it is difficult to see a clear purpose with 'Buildnic'. Why should people show up?"

– Maria, KADK

Why is this valuable?

The codesign process has to be driven by people with something at stake. Ideas and suggestions can easily emerge without a concrete purpose, but for them to materialize, they must resonate with or evoke concerns and aspirations within a network.